Survival of the Fittest
by Blizzicat
Summary: Catalina Severo has been let down all her life. Her parents let her down. Her best friend let her down. And now because of those people she is trapped within the cage known as Beacon Mental Hospital. Cat shuts off her emotions and becomes what they all want her to be; a test subject. But can she keep her cold mask firmly in place when Ruvik and Sebastian appear protect her?
1. Here I Lay

_Quick note before hand! If you start reading this and think "What on earth does this have to do with The Evil Within?!" then give it some time! This first chapter explains how the OC came into the story. Btw, from chapter two onwards the names of the chapters are actually songs that I thought matched best with what is going on in each one._

_Enjoy! :D_

**Chapter One- Here I Lay**

"What a downpour! Will this rain ever let up?" Catalina overheard from a group of people huddled together for warmth. As she passed them, she could feel an intense stare bore into her back, making her shudder.

"Hey, did you hear the story about that blonde girl over there?" One of the men whispered, pointing a gloved finger in Catalina's direction.

"Is she the kid Lorna rescued all those years ago? You know, the one who watched her parents get murdered?"

"That's right! Life must really suck for her. I heard her parents were loaded!"

"What a shame she ended up here with hobos like us."

Catalina marched on in an attempt to escape the idle gossip. She didn't want to remember her past, especially not during the day. At night when she's asleep, the memories of past events plague her mind and make her scream and thrash about in bed. Luckily, Lorna sleeps next to her now which calms her nerves and gives her a peaceful nights sleep.

Before so, however, Catalina was haunted by the same reoccurring nightmare. She's back in her nine-year-old body and tucked away under the safety of a car in a derelict street. She can see the feet of her parents. Her father's black shoes stood directly in front of her mother's red court shoes. As the little girl tilted her head further back, lightly brushing her cheek against the cold cobbled road as she did so, she could see two more sets of shoes that were unfamiliar to her. Two pairs of scruffy black boots. She could hear voices, fast and shrill, but she couldn't make out any words. Even so, her heart began to pound wheb she caught the sound of her father's panicked voice cracking.

Suddenly, as quick as lightning a black boot took a step forward. Her father gasped, grunted and fell to the floor with a cold, hard thud.

"Daddy? Daddy, what's wrong?" Catalina questioned her father with tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at his pained face. Her voice was drowned out by a bloodcurdling shriek which immediately came to a stop.

Down dropped her mother's body.

A pool of dark liquid began to spill from her parent's still figures that delicately oozed through the gaps between the cobbled stones towards Catalina's head. The liquid tickled her nose and chin and the smell of old pennies brought reality crashing through to her.

"Blood…blood…BLOOD!"

* * *

><p>Her dream would usually end there and she'd awaken to see Lorna's smiling face. Lorna had been the one who found Catalina under the car that day. After the murderers ran away, Catalina had cried until her throat went numb; the loud sobbing had been what had alerted Lorna. The memory of her comforting embrace that day felt like a dazzling ray of sunshine warming her body, as if her parents were the ones hugging her, showing how much they loved her, before going up to heaven.<p>

After the corpses of Catalina's parents had been discovered a search party was hastily gathered together to find the missing daughter. The search didn't last long at all. The daughter was not found and the culprits were not looked for either. No one cares about missing orphan children. No one cared to find out who the murderers were or why they did what they did.

Lorna couldn't just leave the poor girl alone after that, she had to take her under her wing. She was such a pretty little girl with her long, wavey cascade of golden hair, her piercing ice blue eyes framed elegantly with long sweeping lashes and her soft porcelain skin. Lorna had always said how Catalina was her angel, sent from God to make her life more bearable.

Happily living with Lorna was enough for Catalina although Lorna had nothing to really offer her. As it turned out, she was homeless and survived on what little she could find. She lived in a homeless community under a bridge that provided perfect coverage for rainy days like today. The community had instantly accepted Catalina as one of their own and now, nine years later, she finally feels like she has a place in the world again; a beautiful family to call her own and live out the rest of her days with.

Catalina spotted Lorna alone on the other side of the bridge. She was crouched over a crackling fire fluttering out from an old olive green barbeque. Her mousy brown hair was pushed back into a messy ponytail as it was every day and she wore her best looking grey jacket with holey, faded black jeans. The past few years Lorna had been looking exeptionally old. Visible wrinkles now shifted across her face with every expression she made which was a complete contrast to Catalina, who was only becoming more attractive the older she became. As Catalina neared her, she could smell the sweet scent of backed beans; her favourite!

"Ah! There's my beautiful angel!" Lorna smiled and stretched her hand out towards Catalina who took the hand and pressed it lovingly against her cheek. Her hand was nice and warm, and she could sit there all day long holding onto Lorna. She was like a second mother to her and Catalina couldn't possibly think of a life without her now.

"I cooked some beans for you Cat." Lorna said, prying her hand free from the tight grip it was in and, with the other hand, scooped up the can of beans from the flames with a tattered oven glove.

"What's the occasion?" Cat asked. Usually anything that wasn't found in a dumpster was saved for something special. Last year for her birthday she got a whole tin of ravioli to herself and it was just glorious.

Lorna began to tense and shifted her eyes away from Catalina, towards the beat up road leading to the clearing under the bridge. "No reason" She replied before shoving the glove and bean can toward Catalina's chest, "Eat up before it gets cold or other people see you."

Cat paused and fixed her icy blue stare upon her friend. Was there something she wasn't telling her?

She shrugged the thoughts away and lifted the bean can towards her agape mouth before pouring some of the contents inside. The heat from the food seemed to almost circulate around her body and quelled her hunger.

Instantly after the first delicious mouthful her vision began to blur and she stumbled forward, clinging to Lorna's muddy grey jacket in a desperate attempt to stay on her feet. It was a futile attempt. She dropped to her knees second later after her fingers lost feeling and involuntarily leaned forward until her face made contact with the floor. Again! She was lying on the ground again, helpless and afraid.

"Wh-what's ha…ppening?" Cat stammered with numb lips, trying to make out Lorna's face among the blurred colours. She wanted to find comfort in her smiling face once more like she always did when she was scared. But this time, she couldn't see it, she couldn't see anything.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Lorna's voice repeated over and over, "They said they'd pay me and I need the money! I can't go on living like this if I can help it Cat!"

Catalina's vision went pitch black and her limbs wouldn't move an inch. Obviously Lorna slipped some sort of paralysing drug into the beans.

How on earth did she get something like that? Did she find it?

As Cat lay on the cool concrete, a warm breeze would occasionally blow her way from the flames of the barbeque. She could just about make out the low sniffling sounds coming from Lorna as she wept besides Cat's body.

Was she being betrayed? No, surely Lorna of all people wouldn't do something so evil. That's right, it's just a joke. Just one huge joke.

All of a sudden, the sound of a car come racing closer and closer until it came to a stop extremely close by. A car door opened and slammed shut again, footsteps drew near and Cat's heart began to hammer in her chest.

What on earth was going on?

"Here is your money as promised." It was an accented voice, unfamiliar to Catalina.

"What are you going to do with her?" Lorna questioned, her speech was rasping and breathless.

"She will be tested." The man replied, "A number of our patients have…gone missing, and we need more subjects to finish out research."

"Don't let any harm come to her!" Lorna growled as threateningly as she could muster up.

"I don't think you're in any sort of position to make demands, do you? You wanted to sell the girl to me in the first place. I bought her for a friend and she is now his to do with as he pleases." The man chuckled coldly as he looked down at Catalina's lifeless body, almost with an expression of sympathy in his eyes. "If you need more money and you have another body to sell, go to Beacon Mental Hospital."

"Who should I ask for?"

"Why, me of course! Dr Jimenez."

* * *

><p><em>Thank you so much for reading! If you have any feedback or constructive critisism then please don't hesitate to review or PM me. I really want to know how you think I could improve the current chapter or maybe your ideas on what is going to happen next? :3<em>


	2. Start of Something Good

_Hi! Thanks for reading to chapter 2! Just a quick note to say that Ruvik and Jimenez will but acting slightly out of character for now but don't worry! They'll be back to their old selves soon enough!_

_This chapter title is named after the song Start of Something Good by Daughtry._

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter Two- Start of Something Good**

It felt like hours had passed, maybe even days, and the paralysis drug was only just wearing off. Catalina's vision slowly righted itself as light and colour battled with the darkness she had been staring into. The first thing she saw was a cracked off-white ceiling that looked as if it could cave in at any second. She peered down at her still body to notice that she had been undressed and changed into some sort of hospital attire. She assumed it was the Beacon Mental Hospital patient clothing. Slowly turning her head to one side, she could make out a bare room in the dim light; one toilet, one sink, one radiator and one bed that she had been placed upon. As she lifted herself off the bed to stretch life back into her tired limbs she noticed a metal door, as mouldy green in colour as the rest of the surrounding area, directly opposite her. It had a head sized square cut out of the upper half with metal bars blocking any type of escape into the pearly white corridor behind it. Silently, Catalina crept over to the other side of the room and wearily pushed her face against the cold metal bars.

No one was out there.

The corridor outside was long and roomy; a string of the same exact doors lined the walls and finally came to a stop at a set of large wooden doors about 7 metres away from where she was standing.

Catalina, with her forehead still in contact with the door in front of her, carefully slithered to the floor.

"Again," She whispered to herself, curling her fists into a tight ball until her knuckles flushed white, "I've been abandoned again." Thoughts leapt though her mind as she tried to find back tears, thoughts about her parents, about how they came to their untimely ends and left her alone, about Lorna, her smiling face, her taking the money as Cat got dragged away.

_Why? Why me?_

The pain became too much to bear. She wished someone would come and tear it out of her heart before it exploded. Catalina had had enough. At that point in time, sat upon the stony, hard floor, she had made a vow to herself to become unkind. She would never trust, never smile, never love. She was never going to show emotion again, like a defence mechanism, so no one could ever get close enough to hurt her.

Where was she now?

What was going to happen to her?

Catalina didn't care.

She slowly fluttered her eyelids closed and lolled her head forward until her chin rested lightly on her collarbone. All she wanted to do was sleep.

Sleep and forget.

_**What's that clicking noise? Its coming closer…I'm scared…I'm scared…It's coming…It's coming!**_

_**Please save me!**_

Catalina's eyelids snapped open as soon as her sleep was disturbed. She craned her neck back to look up at the door only to find a shadow cast along the metal bars. Hurriedly, she looked over her shoulder to see the silhouette of a head formed in the square of light beaming on her floor from the secured window. As it occurred to her that the clicking noise was actually coming from the door lock, she pushed herself backwards rapidly along the floor with her feet until her head collided with the metal bed frame on the other side of the room. Her eyes narrowed as the handle flicked upwards and the door groaned open, filtering a blinding light across her face. Once her vision had familiarised itself with the intensity of the glare, Catalina could make out two figures standing authoritatively in front of her. One had an old appearance with wrinkles and creases defining his face. His dark beard was flecked with grey and his receding brown hair was slicked back, publicising his wide forehead. Catalina knew this man instantly. She didn't know how, she just knew by the way his stern pale eyes were looking down on her as if to mock her.

Dr. Jimenez.

The other man with him she couldn't possibly recognise. He stood to the side of the room, veiled by the shadows, but she could clearly see the bandages covering his head and hands. Were they wrapped around his whole body? She couldn't tell. His plain white shirt and grey trousers concealed the rest of him pretty well. As she gave him a quick inspection up and down, she noticed that he was doing the same to her. Their eyes met and their gaze lingered. She could feel a shiver racing along her spine as she looked into his cold, white eyes. His expression was indifferent and emotionless. Despite this, she struggled to tear her eyes away from him. Her heart began to beat sporadically and she felt as though she couldn't breathe, as though his presence was choking her.

_Why am I like this? Is this sympathy I'm feeling because he looks so injured or something else entirely?_

"Looks like you've settled in nicely." Jimenez jeered in his thick accent, feigning impression as he looked around the depressing cage she was trapped in. What was his problem? Why was his tone so harsh?

"How does it feel to know your best friend sold you as a lab rat? Obviously this was just a one sided friendship, am I right?" He pinched his trousers and hitched them up before crouching down to face her properly. Catalina averted her eyes and slammed the palm of her hands over her ears. She didn't want to be hearing this. She didn't want to think of Lorna as a bad person! She bit down on her lip hard as Jimenez continued, "Look at you, like a fallen angel. So naive and innocent just like your father."

Catalina loosened her grip on her ears. Did he say something about her father?

"Jimenez…" The figure standing in the darkness gave a sideways glare at the doctor, "Did you or did you not say you were going to present to me the test subject you bought?" The bandaged man waited, but Jimenez gave no reply, just looked awkwardly at the ground.

"I've been waiting to introduce myself. Why on earth are you still here rabbiting on about such irrelevant nonsense?"

"I apologise, Ruvik, my emotions go the better of me." Jimenez grunted as he rose from off the ground, giving his trousers a brisk pat down and straightening the lapels on his white lab coat. "I shall take my leave now- but if you find out she knows anything..." Jimenez's sentence drifted off and he reluctantly backed away, shooting Catalina one last scowl before disappearing around the corner and back into the corridor, his lab coat violently flapping behind him with every step.

The two that remained listened to his heavy footfalls getting softer and softer until…

Silence.

Like a thick poisonous smog that clung to the air. It was suffocating.

Low tones, smooth yet slightly gritty, finally carried the smog away causing Catalina to inhale sharply in anticipation.

"I'm sorry for my partners…rude behaviour. He's never usually like that." Catalina fixed her stare back upon the gauze covered man known as Ruvik but insisted on staying soundless; waiting for him to step out of the glooms and present himself properly. However he didn't. He remained rooted to his spot. His arms were clamped stiffly to his sides as they had been for the entire encounter.

"What emotion are you feeling?" He asked rather bluntly.

Catalina endured her silence yet again. Is he serious? Is he seriously asking her how she was feeling, after being sold, locked up and insulted?

Ruvik could see her discomfort with the question he had posed to her. Maybe she was confused? He looked to his feet in thought and, after a brief moment, his piecing emotionless eyes met with hers once more. It was as if he were looking into her soul, like he knew everything about her before he'd even asked.

"How do you feel about the current situation you've been placed into by your friend? I know, it's an absurd question. Just humour me."

There was a momentary pause. Catalina knew the answer he was expecting her to say. Probably the same answer every other patient retained in here tells him.

Betrayal!

She opened her mouth to tell him the obvious answer. But it wasn't right. She didn't feel betrayed at all. Her lips trembled as her voice escaped in the form of an aggrieved whisper.

"I feel sorry." She begun, her eyelids squeezed shut and her hands rushed up to cover her face as tears started to roll down her rosy cheeks.

"I feel sorry for Lorna. She went through so much trouble to look after me and I did nothing for her in return." Catalina dropped her hands into her lap, revealing the glittering tear trails down her face. She looked forlorn and yet beautiful.

"I'm just glad I could be of some help to her…" The tears wouldn't stop. She didn't know why she didn't tell this man a lie; to just lie through the guilt she was truly feeling. She had promised herself that she wouldn't let anyone hurt her again and yet here she was being reminded of her wounds she tried so desperately to forget only hours ago. All this because she couldn't bring herself to lie to him.

_Why?_

Her eyes began to sting from the waterfall that had erupted and cascaded down her cheeks. She felt so silly for crying in front of a complete stranger. Her hands rolled into balls and rubbed at her eyes furiously, causing them to redden and puff even more. She wanted to change the subject quickly, anything to forget again.

"Why are you keeping me h-"

She felt a hand rest heavily on the back of her head, slender fingers tangling her golden hair. She looked up in time to catch a glimpse of Ruvik's bandage covered expression before her face was buried into his white shirt.

The two sat there, both resting against the bed, facing the open door. Ruvik was leaning Catalina's head against his chest, his confused emotions clearly showing in his eyes as his pupils darted about the room, as if in search of something. An answer, maybe, as to why he was doing what he was doing. It was almost like an impulse that caused him to leap from the shadows and comfort her. It couldn't have been because she reminded him of Laura. The two looked nothing like each other. It was the sight of her crying face that made him act so out of character.

She'd dazzled him.

* * *

><p><em>Thank you for reading! I hoped you liked it! Please leave a review if you liked anything or saw something I need to improve on. Can you get who's being introduced next chapter? :3<em>


	3. What If I Wanted To Break?

_This chapter title got its name from the song The Kill by 30 Seconds To Mars._

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter Three- What If I Wanted To Break?**

Catalina couldn't recall fully what happened between her and the mysterious Ruvik. She faintly remembers the kind embrace he had pulled her into but after that...it was hazy. All the crying and sniffling she had done had given her a pulsating headache. She must have fallen asleep while leaning against his reassuring chest because the next thing she knew, she had stirred in her bed with the thin white bed sheet pulled neatly over the top of her. Catalina just laid there, drunk on her own speculation of what had happened after she drifted asleep. Did he pick her up and set her to bed? Did he call a nurse to do it instead? She could detect a strong smell of some sort of medical ointment he had dressed his wounds with that clung to her own clothing. In a surprising sort of way she liked it, though she couldn't understand why. When she thinks back to it, her heart skips a beat.

_Am I attracted to him, even though I don't know him? Even though I've never seen his face properly? She shook her head, dispelling the senseless wonderings. It can't possibly be. There's just something about him that intrigues me is all...It would be best to stay away in future. _

She didn't want to place her trust into someone again, especially not him. His cold, distant stare still brought shiver waves coursing though her being as if it were sending her a warning to stay away. She knew that if she came to trust him it would ruin her.

* * *

><p>One week after her arrival to Beacon Mental Hospital, Dr. Jimenez had visited her. She had been holed up in her room for the whole time, slowly going insane, watching staff and patients alike march by her door. Jimenez didn't stay long. The door had swung open, chipping at some of the paint on the wall, and he was stood in the doorway. His legs were spread a shoulder length apart and his hands were clutched tightly behind his back. When his mouth parted to speak, Catalina sucked in a lungful of air in preparation for the verbal attack.<p>

"I'm sorry for keeping you locked up in here for so long." He sighed; an apologetic look crossed his face, "Please believe me when I say I did it for your own and everyone else's safety."

Catalina glared at him, agog. His complete change in nature from their previous meeting baffled her to the point where she could almost laugh herself into an early grave.

"What are you talking about? How could I possibly be a danger to anyone?" She scoffed.

"You're not well!" He strode forwards until he leaned over Catalina sitting on the bed and placed a hand upon her shoulder in, what she guessed, was an attempt to console her. "But if you accept our help, we can allow you to walk beyond your room and socialise with the other patients."

She had accepted his offer partly due to her burning desire to have, to some extent, her freedom back but also because she was so bewildered. The first time she had met Dr. Jimenez, he was positively venomous. Yet there he was, apologising to her!

* * *

><p>After three months of being trapped, Catalina had been subjected to many tests despite her objection.<p>

"I'm not insane!"

"I shouldn't be here!"

"There's nothing wrong with me!"

As she had found out from one of the more tolerable doctors she had come across that actually listened to her, her files said otherwise.

"Files? What files could I have? I was kidnapped for goodness sake!" She had screamed, thrashing about in the chair she had been strapped to during one of her psychotherapy sessions. She had refused several times to cooperate with the doctor, (Why should she when she is not ill?), so drastic measures had to be taken. The leather strips that were fastened tightly around her wrists and ankles chafed with the sweat she was producing sat under a low hanging light swinging from the ceiling.

The doctor had explained briefly that she had been admitted here due to multiple disorders, however despite Catalina's pleading, he wouldn't disclose any more information. It just didn't make sense! She was kidnapped because Lorna needed the money, she wasn't a real patient! They're treating her as if she were a normal convalescent so why on earth was she actually here? She had given up arguing with them, putting up a struggle had gotten her nowhere fast. She would have to somehow get a hold of her files on her own.

It was a surprisingly loud Thursday morning, and it wasn't just the patients that were noisy, the staff were in an uproar as well. Catalina could hear from inside her room the doctors conversing as they passed one another.

"What's caused such a panic today?" She tried to verbalize as she yawned and stretched her hands far above her head.

She slipped out of bed, already fully clothed, and lazily crossed her room to the door. The bare stone floor felt painfully cold underfoot. She peered out of the barred window to observe the throng of doctors and patients alike scurrying past her door. It was chaos! She spotted the doctor that had told her about her files flying down the hall towards the main reception with a stack of paperwork cradled cautiously in his arms.

"Could I take advantage of this?" She muttered, pushing down on the door handle and swinging the chunk of metal open with a shrill groan. After being locked up for a whole week with only the regular visits from the silent nurse who brought her food, she got such a happy buzz every time she took a step outside.

_Why have I not tried to escape already?_

She asks herself this day and night since Jimenez had rather astonishingly granted her the partial freedom she had readily accepted. It had been three months since then. She'd thought about it, carefully planning her ingenious escape back to Lorna but then-

Lorna…Would she want her back? No, she would probably feel guilty as long as she was around. Catalina didn't want to cause her any more difficulty than she already had. It sounded crazy after all that had happened but Catalina still loved Lorna. Even if they weren't related by blood, they still had that strong family bond. Besides, Cat was being fed breakfast, lunch and dinner which were a damn sight better than anything she had managed to salvage on the street. She had a normal bed and an established shelter that protected her from the harsh weather and the creepy crawlies (though she did find the odd cockroach here and there). She didn't want to give up the comfort she'd managed to disastrously fall into.

_That's right, I'm better off this way._

Swiftly advancing though the brightly lit corridors, Catalina made it to the large oak doors at the end that led into the reception area. Both doors had been propped open with small fragile-looking chairs so as not to hinder the flustered doctors whizzing back and forth from different areas of the building. She followed a bundle of whispering nurses, who were carrying what looked like large quantities of bottled pills, out to see the main reception in an absolute frenzy with staff hauling paperwork, medication and other miscellaneous items around.

"Do you know where this detective is everyone is talking about?" One of the nurses asked in a hushed tone, "I don't see him anywhere!"

"How rude! Coming in here, wreaking havoc amongst the staff and then disappearing! Who does he think he is, investigating the treatment of our patients?" A more elderly nurse huffed, flinging her arms up into the air to express her anger and almost smacking Catalina across the face in the process.

"Hmmm, I don't mind it though!" A petite young nurse on her tiptoes chirped in, "Apparently he's real handsome!"

The three giggled and joined another queue into one of the staff corridors, freeing up some space in front of Catalina to give her a better view. She couldn't see much of the pale green waiting chairs, the large wooden tables with quaint lamps sat on them or the dark green potted foliage that were assembled on floors and table tops. Instead, the room was a sea of white. Lab coats, nurses' uniforms and patient clothing shot though her vision at a dizzying speed. But one dazzling shade of white stood out to Catalina amongst them all. A brilliant white hidden by passing bodies at the far end of the room towards the entrance to the hospital.

Ruvik.

His calculating eyes shifted rapidly from on departing doctor to another until he set his sights upon Catalina. It wasn't the first time she'd seen him since her arrival three months ago. She would spot him occasionally lurking around the corridors. She had no understanding of why but a majority of patients would hurl themselves against walls or inside random rooms just to avoid him. However, whenever her glances at him were caught, she would do exactly the same and hide herself away out of sheer embarrassment.

_What is this?_ She always thought to herself, _I can't be having some schoolgirl crush on him can I? Because of his sympathy he showed me once? The whole bandaged look is so not my type!_

Regardless, she couldn't help but wonder about how he felt when he saw her. Did he feel anything at all?

As he pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning on and took a few steps towards Catalina's direction, she felt her head become fuzzy. A feeling of awkwardness made her chest pound and her legs weak. She hated this feeling; the feeling of caring.

Her mind fluctuated until she managed to piece together what she was actually doing out of her room to begin with. The files! She needed to get her hands on them!

Nimbly plunging amid the throng of people, Catalina made a beeline for the front desk. She could hear shallow gasps from behind her as Ruvik followed closely after, his daunting appearance making patients scatter in all directions.

Slamming her hands upon the desk, Catalina quickly got the attention of the nurse receptionist. She had lifted her startled head away from her computer screen and was staring angrily at Catalina.

"Can I help you?" She asked though gritted teeth and a fake smile. Sadly, it was how most of the nurses acted towards the patients around here.

"I need to see my files." Catalina demanded. She gave a hurried peek over her shoulder to see Ruvik standing a couple of metres away from her. What on earth did he want?

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow just anyone to look at personal files." The nurse responded in a monotone fashion before twisting her head back round to look at her computer screen once more. Catalina's mouth hung open in amazement. Was she serious? She reached over the desk and gripped the woman's wrist, spinning her back into the conversation.

"I'm asking you for my files, my personal files! Why am I not allowed to see them?" Catalina probed.

The nurse looked down at Catalina's hand wrapped firmly around her wrist; a clear flash of panic distorted her pretty face.

"Get off of me you freak!" She shrieked, throwing her arm into the air to free herself. The force of it knocked Catalina backwards onto the heels of her feet and before she knew it, she was hurtling towards the floor.

It was one of those moments that felt like time had almost stopped completely. She was falling so slowly that she assumed she could do something to save herself but her limbs just wouldn't move. It was such a good time for her to find out what her files said after the detective had stirred things up within the hospital but the appearance of Ruvik had shaken her and made her panic. She just wanted someone to save her from the humiliation she was going though.

She landed, and time sped up again. But her back didn't connect to the hard marble floor rather than to something softer. It felt as if she were being cradled.

"Woah, are you alright?" Catalina looked up to see that her face was only inches away from a fetching stranger who was holding her in his arms. Helping her up to her feet again, his pretty hazel eyes never strayed away from her. His beige trench coat was speckled with water droplets from the rain outside and his dark brown hair was slicked back, though a few strands had managed to escape from the rest and dangle across his forehead. "Are you alright?" He gave Catalina a concerned inspection, concluding that she wasn't hurt before sighing and turning towards the front desk.

"You'd better watch it lady." He warned in a husky voice.

"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" The nurse complained, rubbing at her wrist as if she had been injured.

"Detective Castellanos; that's who I know I am."

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><p><em>Thank you so much for reading! It means a lot to me that you made it this far to chapter 3!<em>

_Updates might be a little bit slower now as the story is getting more complex :3_


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